Radeon 9700 pro doesn't like high FSB'S?

[gameboyzz]

Hey guys,

I currently have a P4 2.53 @2.81 ghz
Radeon 9700 pro (built by ati)
Kingston Value ram 512 mb pc2700
Asus P4s533 m/b
Enermax 350 watt p/s

Basically I was getting errors all day long (random restarts), General protection faults, and more. I was troubleshooting the wholetime trying to figure out what was wrong. I couldnt overlock my video card (not even a tad) cause my pc would reboot. Finally I decided to set my cpu to default speeds to see if that was the cause. And boom, it fixed everything, I was able to run all games with no errors, and was able to overclock my video card to 370/ 340 with no artifacts.

Can this be right? The radeon 9700 pro not liking high fsb's? Has anyone encountered anything similar? I would really like to find a solution to this cause I wanna overclock my cpu.

Thanks guys.

 

[chizow]

Yes, the R300 boards have a low fault tolerance for out-of-spec AGP frequencies, which I found to be the case with my nForce2 mobo and from other reports. Even though there was supposed to be an adjustable AGP frequency, I think it stopped functioning correctly beyond a certain FSB b/c of the BIOS settings. It was @ 195MHz until BIOS 1003 allowed me to go beyond 200MHz. I would basically get crashes or locks over 197MHz, and choppiness at anything over 192MHz FSB.

I would update your BIOS and make sure any dividers or AGP settings are correctly set.

Chiz

 

[oldfart]

Thats why you dont buy an SiS board if you are an overclocker. It doesn't have PCI/AGP lock. It runs out of spec

 

[gameboyzz]

Im planning on buying a new m/b this weekend, would the Asus P4PE be a good choice for overclocking?

Thanks in advance.

 

[oldfart]

Yes, an 845PE would fix you up. IMHO, get the Abit BH7 or Alabtron PX845PEV Pro.

 

[gururu]

I have an abit BG7 with agp/PCI clock lock. Even so, my 9700 had a low tolerance for my highest successful cpu overclock.
I had to drop from 2440 to 2340 to accommodate the 9700. A new mobo MIGHT not solve your problem.

 

[oldfart]

I had an odd thing too. I run 170 FSB. Set it to 66/33 lock, it would not work. I changed it to 68/34 and all is well. Overclocking is always an adventure.

 

[Killrose]

From my experience Ati cards have never liked high AGP bus speeds. Some are more tolerant then others.

 

[Noid]

My 9700pro OEM ran at 94mhz on my KX7-333 (4x)

The KX7-333 has no PCI or AGP lock... At 190fsb ,,, both my PCI and AGP were hugely outta spec....
(it was in it for about 8 months without a hitch)

It ran fine .. then I bought the fastest MB I ever owned ....

I have it installed using 8x now in my NF7-S ... so the fsb is 66 now.

It's all luck ... Ive bought CPUs and memory that others could do amazing things with ... but not me ...

I been getting lucky lately ... with my R9700pro, a nice KX7-333 ,,, and now my NF7-S 1.2

I been waiting for my luck to get lucky ...

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: chizow
Yes, the R300 boards have a low fault tolerance for out-of-spec AGP frequencies, which I found to be the case with my nForce2 mobo and from other reports. Even though there was supposed to be an adjustable AGP frequency, I think it stopped functioning correctly beyond a certain FSB b/c of the BIOS settings. It was @ 195MHz until BIOS 1003 allowed me to go beyond 200MHz. I would basically get crashes or locks over 197MHz, and choppiness at anything over 192MHz FSB.

I would update your BIOS and make sure any dividers or AGP settings are correctly set.

Chiz

Dunno; I've got a Radeon 9700 Pro and an Epox 8RDA+; I'm at 200FSB stable, with the AGP speed locked at 66MHz. The lock seems to work here anyway.

 

[rbV5]

Mine runs over 80Mhz on the AGP with no trouble.